As usual, I can think of nothing worth writing about without severely discrediting people that don't deserve it. There hasn't been that many douchebags at work lately. I mean we're starting to get the random professors who storm in claiming that we never responded to an e-mail that they, in fact, never sent but they really can't help themselves.
I think we'll go with another Art analysis. I'm basically stealing this one from a lecture I had last quarter that will severely taint the rest of my life. I'll constantly be throwing back to phrases that basically translate into"well Ovid said such and such and so actually you're wrong because he's always right". Sorry I'm edumacated....kinda.
Anyway here is the image:
It's called The Metamorphosis of Narcissus by Salvador Dali and it has a lot of random shit going on. Left to Right you've got the basic image of Narcissus as a stone, then transferred into a hand holding an egg, and then in the far back corner you've got what I like to think of as a dragon hatching out of an egg way off in the mountains but really goes undefined by anyone who analyzes this piece. Since I just looked back at the picture I've got and you can barely see it I suggest googling for an image you can zoom in on.
Now the stone figure is easy because it looks basically humanoid. His body, set in stone because he won't move away from checking his reflection. (although in the poem he actually moves around a lot so he can admire himself moving/trying to make out with himself. reaching out to touch etc). But since paint doesn't really move once it's dried you can't translate that and so the myth has metamorphosed into a fixed image of Narcissus just sitting there. Next you've got the hand sprouting from the ground, also stone like, holding the egg (symbolic of the world? creation? the seed? growth? with a Narcissus flower sprouting out of it. the idea of Narcissus is more alive to the viewer as a flower than he is as the human. which equals 'Change is good?' while Obama would certainly agree I'm not so sure that that's what this message is. I'm not so good when we get to abstraction/things representing other things which are symbolic of twenty different things. I'm much better with form analysis. Which is why I at least am immediately drawn to the same oval with a crack of something growing out of it that's way off in the distance that no one else notices.
Most people usually then move on to the muscle man on a pedestal on the checkerboard next. Basically he's got the 'look at me, look at me" (picture julia stiles saying it in 10 things I hate about you) attitude going on. In fact now that I've made that reference I'll probably always identify the creature with Joey and his 'pensive' white shirt. This probably represents something like what Narcissus has evolved to mean in current society, something akin to vanity I guess that is so the opposite of what Ovid (I won't say was trying to say because he wanted his characters to evolve. just as he took the idea from something else and ran with it so his readers should do with his) but it's the oppose of what Ovid wrote. Which was that Narcissus was running away from people fawning over him only to fawn over himself (all while the reader stares down at the image presented by the poem).
If you look down you've got the dog eating an undefined figure that looks like it could have once been a hand/antlers. Which brings us way back to Actaeon's story which occurs in the beginning of the poem (which you should read).
The only other two things I find interesting to note but have no theories for is the creepy shadow (of what?) behind the hand and the crowd of people admiring each other in the background (which probably is akin to the Joey - the guy on the pedestal).
Hope I didn't bore the shit out of you. I'm off to bed now. While trying to come up with a title I realized there might be a short addendum because I forgot all this stuff about painting materials and how on earth you depict something that's supposed to be perfectly clear. reflective and still be seen as water. lol....well i think I just did. So I guess no addendum.
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